Irish fight back at tax allegations

The Irish government is getting angry that the US and UK are blaming its tax laws for the antics of multinational IT companies.

Apple and Google have been named and shamed for hiding their cash from the US in Irish bank accounts so that they can pay tax in the much cheaper Ireland.

In a report to its Senate, the US is seen as blaming the Irish for "facilitating" Apple and Google's tax avoidance antics, something which has hotly been denied by Eire.

Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore told national broadcaster RTE that he is getting miffed that the Irish tax system is being blamed.

He said that the problem is not the Irish taxation system, but difficulties that arise from the taxation systems in other jurisdictions. He said it was up to the US and the UK to sort out their problems first.

A panel of senior politicians are set to quiz chief executive Tim Cook and two other senior executives at Apple today on the findings of an investigation by the US Senate on today about three subsidiaries based in Ireland, which, it claims, have allowed Apple to avoid billions of dollars in US income tax.

According to the Irish Times, Gilmore said "Ireland has a very strong, very transparent tax regime. There are problems in other jurisdictions, those problems are going to have to be addressed".

He said that loopholes have to be closed off, and it will work to have those closed off both at European Union level and through the work it is doing at the OECD.